It was an ordinary Thursday in the city. As ordinary as the Wednesday the day before. And the Tuesday before that.

On these ordinary days, people leave home and come home. People go to work and come home. People go to school and come home. People go shopping… You know the story: busy all day.

But suddenly, on this ordinary Thursday, everyone, just everyone, left their homes at exactly 27 minutes past 7 in the morning. Streets were clogged. Pavements were clogged. Shops were clogged. No one could get to anywhere. No one could leave from anywhere. Ambulances could not attend the fallen. Banks couldn’t operate. Shops couldn’t sell.

There was no explanation for it. There needn’t need to be. Everyone leaves home every day. It’s just that, on this Thursday, they all left at 27 minutes past 7 in the morning. It took a week to sort it out.

The government came to the rescue. An edict was declared. A law was passed. If you live in a house with an odd street number, you can’t leave your house in the first half hour of every hour; if you live in a house with an even street number, you can’t leave your house in the second half hour of every hour. It halved the number of burglaries, but doubled the number of murders.

Good old government. They solve everything. Except for Marjorie. She was arrested for leaving early. She thought her number of 2222 was odd.